MY CITY

That's the thing about this city, thought Michelle as she opened her front door to let in the cool morning breeze.

Every Morning Michelle would wake up a 530 am, make her self a cup of coffee and sit out on her front porch watching the sunrise, it was the only time of day that she could truly be at peace. The rest of the day was spent looking after family, and attending to mundane chores.

The view from her front porch was not all that inspiring, a glaring yellow neon sign promoting a pet store, a gray wall with the logo of the local mechanics and a really good view of the grocery store car park and gas station. Immediately across the small the narrow rd on which she lived was a foot path that had some grevillea bushes growing next to it to form a hedge and one rather large eucalyptus tree that was home to a variety of birds that Michelle would watch every morning whilst drinking her coffee. she always spent along time savouring the aroma and taking her to time to appreciate the flavour and warmth of the drink especially on cool mornings. As she sat, she watched Post pandemic life unfold, a lady in her active wear going for a run, the business person running to the bus stop to get the bus, a boy walking the family dogs something that was missing not even 12 months ago.

Michelle had lived in this in home for 11 year and she missed the view she used have, trees as far as the eye the could see! the land had been uncleared and left as natural bush, there was always something different to see, different birds, the odd kangaroo, lizards - never snakes though- for that she was grateful. She would have hated for one of the kids to have been bitten, that would have meant a trip to the Emergency Department at the local hospital and she had been there enough times, to well - last her a life time.

This particular morning as she sat enjoying her coffee and the peace and quiet of the early morning, she thought about the city in which lived. The land many thousands of years of ago had belonged to the indigenous peoples of the area the Noogyar people, but that was before white man came and invaded the place that they called home and ruined it for them forever, even though the traditional name for the area had been kept she doubted that any decedents from the peoples that lived in this land were still part of it, oh there were indigenous people still living in the area but were they of the same genealogy she was not sure. After this she knew that the area was used largely by the army during the first world war - it was the home the Light Horse Brigade, this bunch of brave men would ultimately help to change the course of WWI at the battle of Bathsheba in the middle east, but all that was long before Michelle was born!

later in history, the area was to be home to many migrants, mostly from Italy, they bought the old with them the old ways and many started market farms growing tomatoes that were either sold at market or used by family to make pasta sauce and tomato sauce that would be used in pasta dishes and pizza's and other Italian type food.

The area still has many historical farm houses that have been preserved and are now used as living museums to teach the children of the area about the history of the place where they live.

As Michelle sat there thinking about the history of the city in which she lived, she turned to think about her own history and how she came to part of this city. Her journey like many of the migrants had not been an easy one, Oh she she had lived with white privilege all her life! Somehow that pride and independence had been part of her own personal battle, that had seen her secretly move out her parents home and in with her then boyfriend to whom she was pregnant, she then got married out of sense of duty and after having three more children she realised that the marriage had been a mistake and after a long battle with her husband they agreed to separate and that led to many more arguments over the years through both of their faults, as it takes to argue thought Michelle. At the end of her marriage breakup after moving around for while she settled in this house with her children and she met her new partner, who for all HIS faults was able to put up with hers.

As the sun started to rise over the buildings the yellow neon sign gradually began to dim and more cars began to drive to down the main road that was on the other side of the footpath, she looked down at her coffee cup that was now half empty and growing cold, thinking about her past was not going to get the children up and off to school, neither was it going to help her get the washing folded or the dishes done, however she was determined to finish her coffee and enjoy this last moment of peace before it was disturbed with "MUM I CANT FIND MY SHOES, Where are my shorts, have you seen my homework" and the general Mayhem of the school morning.

She went back her reflecting, the area where she lived has gone through many changes, and it was becoming more and more populated, with new houses being built all the time, yet somehow she had found her place, she was part of the community, she helped out at the children's school and they attended local civic and sporting groups with in the area, they had friends who lived near by. She felt as though she finally BELONGED somewhere and that her children would put down roots here and while they might fly the nest and travel the world they would know where they came from and where they belonged, and that thought Michelle is the thing about this city - it welcomed people no matter where they were from or what there journey had been to get there.